Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Kaleb Cockrum ruled sufficient evidence is available to hold 24-year-old Chico resident Ulisses Rodriguez for trial following five hours of testimony at a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Rodriguez is charged with two counts of first-degree murder with the special allegation of the personal use of a firearm, one count for making criminal threats against a man identified only as John Doe with a firearm, and one count for arson.

“I am going to hold him to answer on all four counts,” Cockrum said as he explained his ruling.

The public gallery included about a dozen people, including members of Rodriguez’s family, where Rodriguez was remanded back to county custody. He will be back in court for an arraignment for further information Nov. 1.

Cockrum explained testimony from one witness as told to an investigator, identified initially by the nickname “Chano” and later identified as Robiciano Sanchez, was key.

“Referencing evidence from ‘Chano,’ the defendant admitted shooting them (the victims) and asking for help,” Cockrum said. “There were .357 casings found at the scene and in the back of a blue SUV tied to Mr. Rodriguez and I find for the special allegation that he used a firearm.”

Rodriguez

Deputy District Attorney Joel Buckingham represented the people and Deputy Public Defender Ben McLaughlin is representing Rodriguez, who sat at the defense table wearing a jail-issued jumpsuit.

The prosecution’s key witness at the hearing was a man who was working at a China Creek grow site on the day that 31-year-old Tiffany Ellebrecht and 32-year-old Jeremy Kuemmel were fatally shot and their bodies later transported from the property to a turnout at Ettersburg Junction in Southern Humboldt County where the vehicle was then set on fire. It wasn’t until the fire had been extinguished that the bodies of the victims were discovered.

The witness, a Mexican National identified only as John Doe, was the second witness called to the stand by Buckingham.

Doe, who was assisted by Spanish language interpreter Carlos Benemann, testified he had been working at the site for about 15 days and had been hired to water plants.

Buckingham asked whether the witness was afraid or not and he replied, “yes, a little, just because I am nervous.”

Buckingham walked Doe through the events of Aug. 14, the day Ellebrecht and Kuemmel were killed.

Buckingham asked Doe if he knew any of the people who were on the property that day and he said yes, then identifying one man only as “Chano.” When asked if he knew Kuemmel’s name he responded, “I believe he was called Jeremy, something like that.”

Doe added that he did not know Ellebrecht’s name but said: “I believe that woman was his (Kuemmel) girlfriend.”

Buckingham then asked Doe if he saw any confrontation or heard any arguments and he responded by saying he heard Rodriguez “say something about taking bushes and that’s how the argument started.”

Doe testified that, at one point, Rodriguez told Kuemmel to leave and that if he came back bad things would happen.

“Jeremy left and came back,” Doe testified, adding, “I was putting containers away when I heard shots, about five or six.”

Doe testified Rodriguez ordered him and Chano to help him secure the bodies in Kuemmel’s 1999 Ford Expedition and help him take the vehicle up to the roadway.

Buckingham also called three law enforcement personnel to the stand to testify: Sgt. Diana Freese of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Detective Bureau who spoke to the service of the search warrant; District Attorney investigator Martin Morris, who was only on the stand briefly; and Sheriff’s Office investigator Scott Hicks.

Hicks testified that in the days following the shootings, he spoke with a man named Gracen Messina who found the burning Ford Expedition owned by Kuemmel shortly after it had been set afire.

“He said he was driving on Shelter Cove Road and observed a green Expedition in flames,” Hicks testified. “He stated he saw a vehicle parked in front of the Expedition facing west, a blue SUV. The vehicle made a U-turn and fled the scene at a high rate of speed.”

Buckingham tied that blue SUV to Rodriguez with testimony from Messina and Doe. It was the same vehicle later confiscated during a search in Chico by Hicks and Morris. The pair found a passport in Rodriguez’s name in the glove box and rounds of .357 ammunition in a rear compartment.

Hicks testified Messina took out his phone and shot video of the burning vehicle, saying it was not fully engulfed but that the front end was burning.

Hicks also testified Rodriguez contacted Sanchez “and said to him, you have to help me. He said ‘I shot them’ and need assistance.”

He also testified about the state of the bodies found inside the Expedition.

“I observed a chain wrapped around the smaller, what I assume was the female body, around her waist and over the legs of the what appeared to be the male body, it was bunched under his legs.”

Freese testified that when the property was searched, seven spent .357 casings were located in a burn barrel and five other spent casings were found on the ground for a total of 12. He said there was a marijuana grow on the property.

McLaughlin argued in his closing that there was no evidence and no testimony to tie Rodriguez to the crime, there was no one who could identify him as the shooter and that there were other people on the property who could have killed the victims. McLaughlin added that no cause of death has been established and John Doe made inconsistent comments during his testimony that ought be called into question.

Cockrum ruled otherwise and Rodriguez remains in custody with bail set at $4.4 million.